Tense sequences
In this video, Paul explains how to change the tense in order to use indirect, or reported speech. As you will see, the tense moves back one step in time from what the speaker actually said.
We can see that “would” is the past of “will” and that “might” is the past of “may”.
Present –> past
“I’m hungry” –> He said he was hungry
present continuous –> past continuous
“I’m going home” –> he said he was going home
Past –> past perfect
I didn’t see him –> he said he hadn’t seen him
Present perfect –> past perfect
“I’ve been ill” –> He said he had been ill
will –> would
“I’ll go and see” –> he said he would go and see
can –> could
“I can get it done today” –> he said he could get it done today
may –> might
“I may be able to do it before lunch” –> he said he might be able to do it before lunch
Categories: grammaire, reported speech | 
Tags: indirect, reported speech, tenses | 
3 Comments »
Egzaminy,
Thanks for your question. I’m not Paul, by the way! You should visit his website, it’s really good: http://www.learnamericanenglishonline.com
To answer your question, no, “today” is correct. The speaker is referring to this current day (today), not some other day. “the same day” or “that day” are also correct, but would need a context, i.e. do the speakers know which “that day” is, or the “same day” as which day?
Look at the sentence “he said he could get it done today”
Shouldn’t there be “the same day” or “that day” instead of “today”?
Excellent video thanks a lot